Contact centers may be used by an organization to communicate in an efficient and systematic manner with outside parties. Such centers may for example have large numbers of agents staffing telephones, and interacting with outside parties and with each other. Calls may be placed on hold or into an interactive voice response (IVR) system when first connected to the contact center; subsequently an agent may take a call, place it back on hold, transfer the call, conference in another agent, or take other such actions related to the call.
An IVR may include a series of pre-recorded greetings, questions, and prompts, which may collectively be referred to as audio messages. Such audio messages may also be used in other automated phone answering systems, such as a system which merely plays an audio message for callers, asking them to call back. It may be desirable to use audio messages that are customized to the organization operating the IVR or other automated phone answering system, including, for example the name of the organization, or, in the case of an IVR, customized options tailored to the organization's operations.
It may be difficult, inconvenient, or inefficient for some organizations to create audio messages of acceptable quality. An organization may lack a suitable audio studio and recording equipment of acceptable quality, and it may lack access to suitable voice talent, e.g., voice artists capable of speaking with the necessary voice attributes, such as, for example, a professional tone, a friendly tone, or a suitable accent in a foreign language. Arranging for access to a recording studio and voice talent may be expensive and inefficient for an organization lacking experience in work of this type.
In another case, if an organization has the capability to produce audio messages of acceptable quality, there may be a further difficulty in the use of these messages. If, for example, they are to be employed in a contact center operated by another entity, there may be a risk that a digital audio file used to transmit the audio messages may have malicious content. Thus, there is a need for a service for creating safe audio messages for automated phone answering systems.